 Photo by Bodhanaa
I once went to a dream workshop. The teacher said to be on high alert anytime we were traveling; in airports or flying, as we would be more open to synchronistic events. These events may have been foreshadowed while dreaming. This has proven true for me, I have had many serendipitous clues, the bubbling up of buried knowledge, or what I call waking up, on flights and travels. It is as if in traveling we can move between two worlds, or move into possibility, a place we may not normally occupy with everyday logic and tasks. And so my world opened again.  Photo by Bodhanaa Driving back from Detroit we passed a La Quinta Inn, yellow and green and brown.
It reminded me of a recent stay at a southern La Quinta Inn, when I was driving with my mom from Florida to Michigan. We had to stay at a La Quinta because it was one of the few places that would allow pets, and we were traveling with Ben, Mom’s gray cat. The room was not very nice: old carpeting, ratty rooms, and I was surprised because I had thought it was on par with Hampton Inn. Driving back from Detroit we passed a La Quinta Inn, yellow and green and brown.  Photo Credit: Asha Brogan Yesterday I returned from taking Asha to college. To college! It happened! I had flashes of so many moments with her from the past 19 years. 19 years! What a long time to spend with someone! What a long time to patiently, and impatiently guide, hold, support, protect, love, hate, cringe, and grow with a beautiful being.
The flashes I had were of her as a three year old, already saying she was going to have a farm, a four year old saying she was not going to college, because she was having a farm. A five year old and I swinging, she asking, “When do I have to leave home”? And I said, “Most kids leave at 18, when they go to college”. And then regret for that answer because I had not yet realized that there were other possibilities, like going to community college, or that kids leave at different ages or that maybe she was asking a different question. She and her sister told me later that the answer,18 was cemented in them.  Photo Credit: Asha Brogan I grew up in a town of sameness. I didn’t know that's what it was until the age of 18 when I went off to college. I didn’t know that our town had so much sameness because at that time, I saw how differently people handled the God part of their lives. There were the Presbyterians, the Baptists, the Methodists, the Episcopalians, the Catholics, and just 5 houses down the street were the Seventh-Day-Adventists. The Presbyterians were the people who went to the big white church with columns on Broad St. This was the church that my grandparents joined. Grandma had always been a Baptist because her father was a Man of God and a Baptist Minister in Chicago. Grandpa was born a Methodist but became a Baptist to marry my Grandma. If you knew them and what a religious life they led, you would be surprised at how they chose their church/religion. When they moved to Hastings in their thirties with their three kids, they gave each church a try-out based on the choir. The Presbyterian choir won, and they became lifelong members.  I cannot recall anything about that first flight to India, but I can recall the landing. I can recall feeling enveloped by velvety air. I can recall seeing a long low building and palm trees and a pale pink sky. When I walked out onto the tarmac, the very air felt pink and soft and warm, how a mother would feel to a child. After gathering my luggage, I rode in a tuk-tuk to Bidadi where I would be attending the first Nithya Yoga Teacher’s Training. Dusk was falling and I was so relaxed. The noise, the smell, the air, the sky, the land, was so alive!
It was New Year’s Eve December 2006. My husband and two daughters were taking me to Columbus, Ohio for the midnight flight to India. Before flying out, we headed north to the newly acquired property in Delaware, Ohio. |
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